Monday, March 14, 2016

GOP primary voters in Florida, Marco Rubio is a threat: two reasons why ... by gimleteye

Marco Rubio is unqualified to be President of the United States.

Consider: the U.S. Defense Department states that climate change is a "threat multiplier". Marco claims to be concerned about "jobs". It's his number one priority. The threat multiplication to your job from climate change is infinite.

That doesn't trouble Marco Rubio. How can Rubio fail to acknowledge climate change threatens every job in South Florida? A threat builds up over time. Rationale people address threats before threats turn into irresolvable crises. Not in the future. Now. Marco Rubio says, he will "mitigate" our way around climate change.

The corruption in Rubio's logic -- "trust me to figure out how to deal with substantive issues in the future" -- is exposed by a dismal history on another policy area that affects every Floridian: the destruction of state water resources.

Consider Big Sugar, Marco Rubio's major source of finance for his stalled campaign. Rubio defends the corporate welfare embedded in the Farm Bill, benefiting his campaign supporters, as a matter of "national security". That is preposterous. Climate change is a matter of national security. Not a subsidy for sugar -- that Rubio mislabels in speeches as a "food".

The billionaire Fanjuls (Flo Sun/ Florida Crystals) and descendants of the Mott fortune (US Sugar Corporation) are his security, not national security. Excess sugar is a poison. It poisons people -- through annual trillion dollar health care costs -- poisons democracy -- through the deformation of equitable campaign finance -- and poisons the Everglades. And not just the Everglades: nearly every waterway in Florida has been crushed by the failure of regulation to protect people, property, and natural resources.

During his visit to the United States in September, Pope Francis told the American people that “climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to our future generation. When it comes to the care of our common home, we are living at a critical moment of history.”

Nowhere does this message resonate more than in Florida, where our communities are already experiencing the effect of climate change in our own backyards.

That’s why the Florida Council of Churches, where I serve as executive director, is one of the many religious bodies calling on our elected officials and candidates to set and reach bold targets for powering America with clean energy.

We are doing so because the principles and traditions of our faiths call on us to make a moral and spiritual stand on climate change. We believe our leaders must make the moral choice to protect the earth and the most vulnerable among us.

A recent report found that Florida has more private property at risk from climate change than any other state. By 2030, $69 billion worth of coastal property not currently at risk will be subject to flooding from sea level rise. The flooding will hurt tourism and agriculture, cost jobs, damage water supplies, and threaten Floridians’ health.

But much of these effects can be prevented in Florida –and around the world — if our political leaders take action. Religious bodies representing people of two dozen faiths — including Baptists, Catholics, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists and many others — have signed an Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change. It recognizes that we are “destabilizing the global climate system, heating the Earth, acidifying the oceans, and putting both humanity and all living creatures at unacceptable risk.”

It also declares that “strong action on climate change is imperative by the principles and traditions of our faiths and the collective compassion, wisdom and leadership of humanity.”

This is a powerful call to action — and it’s one that Floridians of every faith should embrace. We already have the solutions to help tackle the problem and to meet a goal of powering the country with more than 50 percent clean energy by 2030. We can help vulnerable people and communities survive and thrive. We can create sustainable jobs while cutting pollution and protecting our children’s health. We can establish America’s global leadership on climate and clean energy. But what’s missing is strong political leadership.

Interfaith leaders are grateful for the actions taken to date, including President Barack Obama’s powerful executive leadership and the global climate agreement signed in Paris.

But we now have to seize this momentum and solidify America’s leadership on climate action in the weeks and months ahead. As Pope Francis reminded us, we must make the moral choice on climate to safeguard the most vulnerable and protect our common home.

We can do something to protect our communities — we can unite as a global family threatened by a common danger to urge political leaders to take decisive action and pursue the solutions we know already exist.

***

The Rev. Dr. Russell L. Meyer is the Executive Director of the Florida Council of Churches. Column courtesy of Context Florida.

11 comments:

Anonymous
said...

MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA ONCE AGAIN!

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD. Psalms 46:10

Dear Beloved God in Heaven,

Please give us a president that loves this country and everything it stands for. Please give us a president who respects you as the one true God. Please give us a president who will, with your help, restore this nation to its former glory, the way you created her.

Please help us to respect what you have given to us and not take anything for granted ever again. Please God, weaken the evil and strengthen the good, both within and without. May our eyes be opened. In Jesus' name, Amen.

God Bless America

“Friends, you are free to forward this prayer to all of your fellow Christians and urge them to read it, then pass it on. As never before in the history of this country has this plea been so vital.”

Not trying to be disrespectful but I would rather see Congress work with the next president and stop the penny ante bullshit they have pulled for the past 7+ years than worry about God blessing this country.

There is too much so-called god in this country as it is and it is a divisive force.

People don't understand the nature of power. If a candidate is abrasive and unconcerned about people and voters during the campaign, what in the world do you think he is going to be like when he gets in power? If he is rich and does not need any money from anyone, who will check him and keep him from doing stupid things to the country and the world? Presidents are always beholden to tons of people financially, this need for money and input from others helps to keep their power in check, and makes them responsive to all kinds of groups and people. With no need for money from others to get elected, coupled with the massive power of the presidency, the only thing that keeps us from a dictatorship is congress. Individual voters and people will mean absolutely nothing to him. We are at an interesting crossroads. Do you want wealthy people to be politicians too? If so, how will this shift change governance, and our particular type of democracy? What happens to the concept of responsiveness to individual people? Will the politician who begs everyone who walks in the door disappear, being replaced by rich elites?

God Bless America? I think I sung that in grade school, while the Vietnamese were getting Napalmed, and 55,000 Americans lost their lives so today we can have relations with communist government there?

I'll agree that Marco isn't qualified to be El Presidente but neither was Obama so what's your point?

Last Anon being rich is neither a qualification or disqualification for being President. Being deceitful, dishonest, disingenuous and amoral seem to be the traits the American people prefer.

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Quotes hall of fame - worth another look:

Jonathon Dunlop of Australia about the Miami Airport:"This is the most disorganized shambles of an airport that exists on this earth.''April 01, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment on Post__________________________________On "Colony Collapse Disorder":Anonymous said...I say lets wait till the last tree is going to be cut down, the last bit of oil used, the last lowland coastal areas flooded before we make any rash decisions that might effect the economy.April 21, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment_________________________________On Bee “Colony Collapse Disorder” being blamed on cell phones:Anonymous said...Hmmm. What are bees doing with cell phones, anyhow?April 20, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment_________________________________On South Florida Water Supply:Ron Littlepage said...Unfortunately, we know who would win when it comes to allowing development to run amok and it's not the wildlife.April 20, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment Post_________________________________Lesley Blackner said:In Florida, the sad reality is that government exists to serve the development machine, not the citizenry. That's why it's proper to say that in Florida we have government of the developer, by the developer and for the developer.April 22, 2007 Eye on Miami Post_________________________________On City of Miami and Miami Dade County giving $1,000,000 each to Jorge Perez’s Related Group (The Group's 2005 revenues were $3.25 billion.):"It makes as much sense as me donating half my paycheck to Warren Buffett.”May 6, 2007 Miami Herald Columnist Ana Menendez_________________________________On the FCAT Test:"'Florida is a serial mis-user of test scores.''Bob Schaeffer, director for Massachusetts-based FairTest.May 25, 2007 Miami Herald_________________________________Clifford Schulman (Greenberg Traurig Lobbyist):"This is the first time in 33 years that any one has accused me of fraud." June 28, 2007 Miami HeraldI say: hmm.__________________________________Max Rameau, Homeless Activist:"I respect Ron Book for his work with the Homeless Trust, but the Liberty City community and others have given broad support to this idea. I don't know that a big-time millionaire lobbyist can tell us what is best for Liberty City and the black community.'' July 28, 2007 Miami Herald__________________________________"After years of mismanagement under a board of political appointees and neighborhood activists, Miami-Dade County administrators have proposed a new way to run the troubled empowerment zone program. The plan: Bring in new political appointees and neighborhood activists."November 6, 2007 Miami Herald: Reporter Scott Hiaasen______________________________________"Saying "Greater Everglades" and "Northern Everglades" is not saying Everglades -- other places are deserving of being protected too, but there is only one Everglades. The main thing is to keep the 'Main Thing' the main thing -- which, lately, has not been the main thing." Bob Mooney - on Listserve "Everglades Commons"________________________________________"Does anyone in their right mind believe that Florida could conduct postal balloting without a major screw-up or scandal? Heavens, no! The whole country is keenly aware that our state is a sump hole of incompetence and corruption."Carl Hiaasen - March 16, 2008 Miami Herald_______________________________________On the Charter Review: "Commissioners want us to vote on their own pet changes, ideas the review team explicitly rejected. And, they're throwing their blatantly self-serving ballot questions at us at the same time. What a slap in the face to the charter review team — and to all of us!" Michael Lewis of Miami Today - April 10, 2008______________________________________On the Miami Dade County Commission:''Unfortunately, this is a commission that would build a cyanide factory next to a playground if you hired the right 12 lobbyists,'' Miami Lakes Councilman Michael Pizzi - May 14, 2008______________________________________"The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody recognizes that that’s not a smart way to build communities." President Barack Obama in Fort Meyers - February 10, 2009______________________________________"So."Dick Cheney's response when told that two thirds of Americans did not support the war in Iraq. - Time Magazine 2008______________________________________"It seems like a bad idea can always find a home in the Florida Legislature." - Howard Simon - Executive Director of Florida ACLU - March 24, 2010

______________________________________Complete this sentence: South Florida really needs a..."Regional plan for controlled growth (before it becomes a concrete jungle similar to Houston), and a completely new set of elected officials that make decisions based on what's good for the future of South Florida instead of what's good for their wallets. - Jack McCabe, Real Estate expert who predicted the housing boom's end. - August 29, 2011 Miami Herald